A series of questions on students' adjustment to problems commonly
faced in college were asked only at UC Santa Cruz. Table 6 displays
the average importance and progress ratings overall and the average
progress ratings for each of the four UCSC student groups. There
were few differences in the average importance of adjustment issues.

Academic Level Freshmen rated the ability to manage finances,
the ability to handle relationships, comfort with diverse people,
balancing academic and personal life, and finding a social niche
as more important than upperclassmen. Not surprisingly, deciding
on a major and deciding on courses to take were the least important
issues for seniors.

Sex Females reported all areas to be more important than
males except ability to handle relationships and finding a social
niche (where there were no differences).

Ethnicity As a group, students of color (especially Chicano,
Latino, and Asian students) found selecting courses and managing
finances as somewhat more important than white students.

Major Arts majors rated deciding on a major, time management,
handling stress, managing finances, and handling personal relationships
as more important than students in other majors. Humanities
majors rated handling stress and managing finances as more important
than other majors and deciding on a major as less important.
Individual and interdisciplinary majors rated managing stress,
comfort with differences, and personal relationships as more important
than other students. Finding a social niche was important for
students who were undeclared.

Transfer After accounting for student level, academic
performance was more important for transfer students than "native"
students.

College Differences were examined only for freshmen and
sophomores. Students in Cowell College rated the importance of
the comfort of their living situation, managing finances, and
comfort with people from different backgrounds lower than students
in most other colleges. Stevenson students rated time management
and managing finances as less important. Crown College students
rated comfort with people from different backgrounds and comfort
of their living situation as less important than students in most
other colleges. Students in Porter College rated balancing their
academic and personal life, finding a social niche, comfort with
people from different backgrounds, and deciding upon a major as
having lower importance. Kresge College students rated selecting
courses and academic performance as having less importance than
other students.

Time management was the most difficult problem students faced.
Although half report being satisfied with their ability to find
a social niche, relatively few said they were doing 'very well.'
Figure 2 displays UCSC students ratings of their adjustment to
college.

Academic Level Freshmen rated their progress lower than
seniors in academic competence, academic management skills, social
competence, and acquisition of technical skills. Specifically,
they were lower in deciding which courses to take, deciding on
a major, time management, comfort with their living situation,
academic performance, and finding a social niche. Satisfaction
with the variety of courses in the major, computer services, and
library facilities declined as students advanced.

Sex Females reported more progress than males for deciding
on a major, time management, managing finances, social competence.

Ethnicity White students were slightly more satisfied
than students of color with their ability to choose courses, their
ability to decide on a major, and with their academic performance.

Major Arts, humanities, and undeclared majors rated their
progress in developing technical skills lower than social and
natural science majors. Undeclared students rated their progress
in developing academic competence, social competence, and academic
management skills lower than other students.

Transfer Although transfer students reported greater difficulty
in finding a social niche or having a feeling of belonging to
college than did "native" students, they were more satisfied
with their overall academic experience including the quality of
instruction, the content and variety of courses in their major,
the rigor of their courses, their involvement with the faculty,
and all sources of advising. Transfer students found their progress
in comfort with people from different backgrounds to be greater
than did "native" students.

College Students at Stevenson and College Eight rated
their progress in developing effective interpersonal skills higher
than students in Porter, Cowell, Merrill, and Crown Colleges.

Adjustment issues cover a variety of academic and personal concerns.
Students in Group A (medium academic, high social) reported greater
progress on every adjustment item than students in any other group.
The least progress was reported by Group C (low academic, medium
social) on the academic topics (i.e., deciding on a major, deciding
on courses to take, academic performance, time management) while
Group D reported the least progress on all of the personal adjustment
issues (e.g., ability to handle relationships, comfort with living
situation, ability to find a social niche).

Compared to other areas of the survey, students identified relatively
few areas that had high importance and low satisfaction. Table
7 shows that about a fifth of UCSC students wanted to improve
their ability to manage their finances and to manage their time.